Earth rounds perspective

Note: this assumes an understanding of the Three dimensions of Evolution. When reading about evolution, the development of Mankind is usually covered in seven epochs of the current physical CoF (globe) in the current fourth mineral CoL (round) .. and so one could wonder: how about the other CoL (rounds) and CoF (globes)?

The Earth goes through seven CoL of which we are currently in the fourth 'mineral'. The first three were repetitions of the previous planetary stages, and specifically the main CoL in each (see also Schema FMC00.203 in Overview of solar system evolution).

The fourth current CoL is the start of a totally new development. Lorenzen explains how this is the start of a new cycle of creation, where Christ is the new creator taking over from the Father principle (see also creation in the Gospel of John). Note this is also the start of the current physical solar system with the planets, the way we know if from mineral science and sensory perception.

Whereas the previous CoL were repeats of lesser importance, the next CoL are of full importance because now Man becomes co-creator participating in the new cosmos (1905-02-06-GA090B, see also Meaning of Free Man Creator)

Each CoL or round unfolds in seven CoF or globes: in the first three downwards we have take something off and in and caring, from fast to slower this is de-acccelarating. The middle is the main globe and turning point and the slowest, afterwards the three next CoF speed up again. So there is retardation slowing down, a seeming persistance, and then again an acceleration going upwards again. (1904-06-16-GA090A).

Each next stage works with short repeats of the previous CoL that are of lesser importance for development (on Earth these are the first three CoL), and this repetition also takes place within the CoF.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.298 is a synthetic table with descriptive quotes from various lectures on different aspects of the Earth's CoL (and CoF). Click to enlarge.

Schema FMC00.298A is a simplified version of the reference FMC00.298 to highlight the process of Man in context of the Meaning of Free Man Creator', his relationship with the kingdoms, and the aspect of recapitulation of CoC at CoL level.

Schema FMC00.219 is an illustration by Rudolf Steiner of the Mars and Mercury passages in the Earth's mineral round or CoL=4

Schema FMC00.057B positions the above FMC00.219 for ease of reference

Schema FMC00.057C provides an overview scheme for the study of the evolution of our current Earth planetary stage and CoC, the formation of the current physical solar system with the planets, the emergence of the spectrum of elements and ethers, and nature's kingdoms on Earth.

Note the threefold recapitulation at CoL level, at CoF level, and then at epoch level; as well as major events such as the Mars transit, and the separation of Sun and Moon. Compare also with FMC00.302 on Earth's seven epochs.

Lecture coverage and references

1904-06-09-GA089

[Pralayas - concept and also between the CoL or rounds]
The time between one manvantara and the next passes in a state in which everything living on the Earth sleeps, so to speak. But it isn't comparable to normal human sleep. In normal sleep only the activities of understanding and sense are interrupted, but you can see the physical body. The sleeping state of the Earth must be thought of differently. No earthly being is visible during this sleeping state. This state would be perceptible only to the opened eye of the so-called dangma, the highest developed seer. This state is indescribable in words, for our words are inadequate for this kind of existence. I find no words in any language for this state. Therefore the developed seer says something quite different in order to give an idea of this state.
He says: imagine a plant. You see this plant. Now imagine a kind of plaster impression of the plant, but in such a way that the plant itself is empty space and a Round is the plaster. Consider that the plaster is spiritual and only perceptible for certain senses. Whoever can see the plant cannot see the plaster impression at the same time, that is, the negative of the plant. Something similar is what the developed seer would perceive of the Earth during the Pralaya sleep. The Earth is not there. It is the hollow form, swimming in a great, mighty sea of the highest spiritual beings that is gradually disappearing and out of which the Being of the Earth itself flows.
Then something begins to originate within this hollow space, something not yet perceptible to the physical senses; it is only perceptible to the highly developed seer who can consciously move in the spiritual plane.
At the beginning of the Earth's existence he would see a sphere in space, a purely spiritual sphere in which only the spiritual is present. Every time before a new Round begins, our Earth exists in such a spiritual state. When it awakens from the Pralaya sleep, it does so as such a sphere. The spiritual seer perceives it in a wonderful reddish glimmer. But that Earth contains everything that later becomes Earth. The densest bodies are also contained in this sphere.
[editor: about the red sphere, see Schema FMC00.570]
How can we imagine this?
It can be made clear by means of a simple process. Imagine a glass full of water. The water is fluid. When you cool the temperature sufficiently, the water becomes ice. You have the same thing in front of you as previously—ice is nothing other than water, only in another form. Raise the temperature and the ice reverts to water, with higher temperatures even to steam.
By this example you can imagine how all matter derives from the spirit through densification.

The spiritual sphere - seen only by the seer's developed eye - densifies gradually after it passes through a small pralaya. It can then be seen by a less developed seer's eye.

Then follows a kind of short sleeping state, and now the sphere is visible to the astral eye, that is, for whoever has developed this sense on the astral plane.

Again a pralaya state follows, and the sphere appears again as physical solid matter. Only now can physical eyes see it, physical ears hear it, physical hands grasp it. That is the fourth stage.

Then a short pralaya comes again. This stage disappears and again an astral sphere presents itself, but with much more highly developed beings.

An analogous state appears in the sixth round, also only visible to the spiritual seer.

Thereafter another pralaya and then a state only visible to the highest developed seer.

Then follows what is invisible even to the Dangma. A long pralaya follows and then the whole process begins again. This happens seven times. In this way the Earth is transformed from the lowest to the highest level.

[CoL or rounds]
Let us now follow the first Round. We can study it best by observing what exists on our Earth where it is most solid. In the first Round there were no mineral forms yet, no physical nature energy and no chemical energy. The Earth had carried out the previous evolution only to create a foundation for physical existence; it created this foundation in order to prepare a physical existence in the fourth Round. Our Earth looked like a fiery mass, with such tremendous temperatures that none of our present substances could have the form they now have. All substances were jumbled up in that fiery primal porridge—allow me to use that trivial word—in homogeneous, undifferentiated matter. Theosophy says: the Earth was in the fiery stage. Common fire is not meant, however, but fire of a higher, spiritual nature. There were no chemical elements involved. But what was in the interior of this matter was active.
Two kinds of spiritual beings were active [in this warmth]:

those we call Dhyani Chohans,

and those beings who had not yet descended to physical materiality, who had a partially spiritual body, and who flowed through the fiery matter with tremendous rapidity.

We see here a continuous emergence and disappearance of irregular forms, also of forms that remind us of those that will exist on Earth at a much later time.
The emerging and disappearing seems to follow a pattern. Forms arise which are reminiscent of later crystals and plants—even something that takes on human form, and then disperses. The humans who would later incarnate lived in that fire, modeling and preparing their bodies. That is how the Earth's first Round appears to us. Then followed the transition from this fiery, flowing Earth to the sleep-state.
The second Round began in the same spiritual way. “Ether” is finer than our present-day gas, but denser than the Earth was in the previous stage. In this very fine matter what we call chemical elements formed. You can find this second stage wonderfully described in religious books, where it is written that the divine beings ordered everything according to mass, number and weight. What had earlier been irregular was now organized in chemical elements according to number. The chemist will understand me, for he knows the regular periodic system of the elements. The individual substances were not yet related to each other. Now, however, as matter became differentiated, we see the most wonderful forms coming into existence which remind us of later forms, only they are not yet solid: star-like forms, angular forms, tetrahedrons, polyhedrons, round forms and so on. The forms that will later constitute nature are intimated. As in the first Round crystal forms were prearranged, the plant forms were constituted in the second Round. Then all flowed away; the astral and spiritual natures went through a Pralaya stage again and re-appeared in the third Round.
When we consider the physical state of the third Round, we find matter in a quite different state. It is not yet differentiated as air and water, but forms a kind of mist, or steam. It is no longer an ether form, but rather somewhat as cloud formations are today. And within these mist formations, which we find described in old sagas—the sagas of Nebelheim (home of mist) and Niflheim describe this state—we see matter in another form, no longer organized according to number, but equipped with energy. The esoteric researcher speaks here of the Law of Selected Relationships. The chemical substances organize themselves according to the Law of Selected Relationships. Now, however, in the third Round, energy emerged, which allowed the small to become larger and expand. The substances could organize themselves from within, energize themselves. Not only the first plant forms, which we met in the second Round, appeared, but growth was also possible. The first animal forms appeared, which we would consider to be extremely grotesque today. Gigantically large, colossal shapes formed themselves out of the mass of mist. For the occultist there is something of truth when he looks at the clouds and sees that one cloud looks like a camel, another like a horse. In the third Round the beings were mist-like forms, which reproduced by one transforming itself into the other, one deriving from the other, like the lower cell organisms, which are reminiscent of this process. These animal bodies, which formed out of the mist, could now provide the basis for those individualities who came from previous worlds to find bodies. The human being could now incarnate. He found a body which allowed him to appear, at first in an imperfect, primitive, groping way. Failed incarnations were also possible. We could say that during the third Round beings existed on the Earth who were intermediate beings between man and animal, in which the human being did not feel completely right, but could nevertheless incarnate.
Then another Pralaya occurred, and then the fourth Round. That is the Round to which we belong today. The Earth passed through the spiritual state, went through the astral and etheric states and finally arrived at the physical state which we have now reached. During the first Round the foundation for the mineral kingdom was formed, during the second Round the foundation for the vegetable kingdom was formed, during the third Round the possibility for animal forms was established. And now, during the fourth Round, the human being acquired the ability to take on the form he has today.
Let us consider the state of our physical Earth somewhat more closely. The state of the Earth in this fourth Round must be described as being much denser than the states of the previous Rounds. First there was a fiery state, then a misty one, then one between air and water. Still during the beginning of the fourth Round we had a kind of gushing matter, similar to protein. Gradually it all condensed, and what we have today as matter is nothing other than the condensed, originally gushing matter, exactly as ice is condensed water. At the beginning of the fourth Round all beings were created so they could live in this gushing matter.
Man had a form similar to the one he has now, but his consciousness was extremely dim, comparable to that of a dreaming person. He dreamed his being in a kind of sleeping consciousness; the spirit was still lacking. Let us consider this state more closely. The human being was possible in that flowing, gushing state. We call these people of the first race dream-men. It is difficult to describe them.
[editor: See Polarian epoch]
Another stage followed this one, in which matter became denser and separated into a more spiritual and a more physical materiality, comparable to the North and South Poles.
...
[section - see lecture]
...
The task of physical evolution is that what is created for us humans achieve its objective. You will not find a human being as he is today on Earth on any other planet. Beings, yes—but not human beings. The Earth exists in order that “I”-conscious human beings could be created. Through the first four Rounds the kingdoms of nature evolved in order that in the fourth man could be made a self-conscious being, who could reflect himself in his body. He will rise to higher levels of evolution, something that few can understand correctly.
In the next, the fifth Round, the mineral kingdom will disappear. All mineral matter will be transformed to vegetable matter. Then the vegetable kingdom will reach its culmination and ..
.. in the next (sixth) Round the animal kingdom will form the lowest kingdom.
During the seventh Round the human being will achieve his highest level of evolution. He will have become what planetary evolution intends.

1904-06-15-GA090A

is called the 'Next rounds'

1904-09-03-GA091

Fourth globe inside versus previous outside
At the same time, we can also call that which Man reached in the three former globes as the highest: these are beings into which Manas worked from outside. It is the task of earthly evolution to transform the body in such a way, that Manas can truly work from inside.
And now you shall also become clear about the difference between Man who stands at the fourth stage of evolution and Man who stood at the third evolutionary stage: that which formerly worked on him from outside, now emerges from inside.
Now everything must be properly prepared. Let us think of the lunar period as having passed. Now everything had to be repeated briefly, and previous stages were necessary for this to happen. First, the Lemurian Age was sufficiently developed, so that Manas could undertake the transformations.
The Lemurian race also had seven sub-stages. In the fourth (Lemurian) sub-stage, Manas emerges from within the human being.

1904-08-10-GA090A

1904-10-31-GA089

and others still to be integrated

1905-02-06-GA090B

explains (see build-up on 1905-01-30-GA090B) that:

In every planetary stage, there is always one round or CoL where Man goes through the main development, the other six rounds are of little importance for Man 'as is' does not progress much in these. They are important though for other beings as they have meaning for these to achieve their goals.

See also Schema FMC00.203 on Overview of solar system evolution

From the lecture text it appears, though it is not stated explicitly so this is an interpretation (to be reviewed), that in the first three planetary stages the other future rounds (after the one that matters for evolution) are thrown off (as stated above with little meaning), but that from the fourth middle stage onwards, the other future rounds do have importance for the future development of Man as something fully new is added to Man. Freely translated (p58-59 in DE):

And now the next cycles do start to have a meaning for the future development of Man. They are no longer sheaths that are through off, but they start to have a meaning for the future cycles for Man.

1905-09-29-GA093A

[note in the below, rounds means Conditions of Life but can also be read as corresponding to Conditions of Consciousness or planetary stages of evolution]

Limestone is derived from animals. The Juras, for example, consist of such an accumulation of calcium. They were previously covered by the sea and are formed from the cast-off shells of sea-creatures. Thus, the younger limestone mountains have arisen out of animals and the primeval rocks out of plants. The plant kingdom gradually passes over into the mineral kingdom. Everything solid on the Earth has arisen out of a 'plant-Earth'. This mineralizing process can be studied through the development of coal out of plants.
The mineral kingdom in its present state of separation only came into existence during the fourth round [during the Atlantean epoch]. After this, the entire mineral kingdom will be spiritualized by Man. He transforms it with the ‘plough of his spirit’. Everything that Man does today, the entire world of industry, is the transformation of the mineral kingdom. When someone quarries a rock in order to use the stones for the building of a house, when he builds a cathedral, all this changes the nature of the mineral kingdom by artificial means. In the fourth round [or Condition of Life] Man can work upon the mineral kingdom in this way. With the plant, on the contrary, he can as yet do nothing of this kind. The whole mineral kingdom will be transformed by Man. To a great extent this will be brought about by oscillating electricity no longer requiring wires. Here Man will be working right into the molecules and atoms. At the end of the fourth round, he will have transformed the entire mineral kingdom.

From the fifth round onwards Man will do the same with the plant kingdom. He will be able consciously to carry out the process which is now carried out by the plant. As the plant takes in carbonic acid and builds up its body from the carbon, so the human being of the fifth round will himself create his body out of the materials of his environment. Sex will cease to exist. Man will then himself have to work on his body, will have to produce it for himself. The same process of transforming carbon, which the plant now carries out unconsciously, will then be carried out consciously by Man. He will then transform matter just as today the plant transforms the air into carbon. That is the true alchemy. Carbon is the Philosopher's Stone.

1905-10-05-GA093A

SWCC, see also: Radioactivity#1905-10-05-GA093A

Seven conditions of form (CoF) together make up a Condition of Life (CoL, or Round). At the present time the Earth is going through its fourth CoL and this is the mineral.
During this time it is the task of mankind to work upon the mineral kingdom. A man is already working on the mineral kingdom when he takes a flint and hammers it into a wedge-shaped tool with which he makes other objects, when he transports rocks and builds pyramids out of the stones, when he makes tools out of metals, when he conducts electric current in a network over the earth; in all this man is working upon the mineral kingdom. Thus man puts into service the whole mineral kingdom. He makes the Earth into something entirely of his own devising. When the painter turns his mind to a combination of colours he is also working upon the mineral kingdom.
We are now in the midst of this activity, and in the course of the next epochs the Earth will have become completely transformed, so that eventually there will be no single atom on the earth that has not been worked upon by Man.
In earlier times these atoms became more and more solidified; now however they are becoming increasingly separated. Radioactivity did not exist in earlier times and could not therefore be discovered. It has only existed for a few thousand years, because now the atoms split up more and more.
When the Fourth CoL comes to an end the entire mineral kingdom will have been worked upon by the hand of Man.
When it has been completely worked through by Man, then, in order that the fruits of this work can be manifested, the Earth must pass over into an astral condition in which forms can develop.
The Earth then passes over into a Mental Globe and then into the Higher Mental condition, the Arupic [unformed spirit world]. It then disappears altogether out of these conditions into a shorter Pralaya.
It then enters once more into a new Arupic condition, that of the next, the Fifth CoL; then into a Rupic condition and then into an astral condition. After this it appears physically once more.
Everything which Man worked into the mineral kingdom during the Fourth CoL reappears [in this next fifth CoL] and grows up as the plant kingdom; for instance [the] Cologne cathedral will appear as a plant in the next CoL or Round.

1907-06-04-GA099

To begin with, the Saturn existence came forth with the physical bodies of the animal-men, but in a certain respect no longer as simple as they were on Old Saturn. At that time the sense organs existed as rudimentary germs; now the glandular and nerve organs were present in addition, but they were incapable of taking in what was above.
[recapitulation]

A short recapitulation of the Old Saturn stage of existence had to take place. The spirits of I-hood and independence must work once more on the physical bodies, in order to implant in them the power of taking up the I.

In the same way the Old Sun-stage must be passed through, so that these physical bodies in respect of the organs formed on the Old Sun were capable of receiving an I.

And in the same way the Old Moon condition was repeated in order to make the nervous system fitted for it.

.

Thus there was first a kind of repetition of the Old Saturn stage. In this the beings who were earlier animal-men now wandered on the Earth like automata or a kind of machine.

Then began the time when this repeated Old Saturn condition went over into the Old Sun condition; there these human bodies were like sleeping plants.

Next entered the repetition of the Old Moon-state, where the Sun had already released itself. Everything remained behind that had earlier already detached itself as Old Moon. Once again then the whole Old Moon-cycle was repeated, except that now the capacity to receive an I was implanted into the beings.

[period between separation of Sun and separation of Moon]
This repetition of the Old-Moon-cycle was for the Earth, if one may say so, an evil period of its evolution, for considered spiritually, the I-hood had been implanted into the human body consisting of physical body, etheric body and astral body, but without the refining power of thought.
During the time when the Sun had already withdrawn and the Earth had not yet cast out the Moon, man was in a condition in which his astral body was the bearer of the most savage lusts, for every bad force was implanted in him and there was no counterbalance. After the separation of the Sun there was a globe in which, if one wished to express it today, the human beings were still entirely group-souls, but of the most sensual order with the worst instincts.
During this passage through a veritable hell, and under the influence of the departed pure Sun forces (not only of the physical sun, but also of the Sun-beings, who had withdrawn to the Sun) the recapitulating Moon gradually matured so far that it could throw out the terrible instincts and powers, and retain on the Earth whatever was capable of evolving.
With the departure of the present moon all those sensual forces went away; therefore in the present moon you have the remains, in its spiritual significance, of all the evil influences which were at that time present in the human realm; and therefore too the moon is looked upon as having a detrimental influence.
Thus it was everything capable of evolution that remained on the Earth after the separation of the Sun and the Moon.
Let us consider first the animal-men themselves. They were gradually matured far enough for the Ego to be incorporated Thus we now have wandering on the Earth the human being who consisted of four members (physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego). It is now for the first time that the earlier swimming, floating position changes and man begins gradually to arrive at the upright position. His spine, his spinal nerve-cord, became vertical, in contrast to the completely horizontal position which it had during the Moon period, and with this rise into an upright position went parallel the widening out of the mass of the spinal marrow into the brain; and yet another development ran parallel with it. For the floating, swimming motion which man had both in the Moon period and during the repetition of the Moon period when the Fire-mist forces were still present in the environment, he needed a kind of swimming bladder, and this was actually a part of man's composition, as is the case with the fishes of the present day. But now the Fire-mist (we have called it “Ruach”) was precipitated. This took place quite gradually and slowly. The air, to be sure, was still filled with thick vapour, but the worst was precipitated and with this began the time when from a gill-breather man became a lung-breather. The swimming bladder was transformed into lungs. Through this man became capable of receiving into himself the higher spiritual beings, namely, the first rudiments of that which stands above the Ego-Spirit-Self or Manas. This metamorphosis of the swimming bladder into the lungs is expressed in the Bible in the wonderful monumental words: “And God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.” Here is expressed what had taken place in the human being during millions of years. And all the beings which we have learnt to know, the plant-animals as well as the animal-men of the Moon and their descendants during the Moon period of the Earth, all of them as yet had not red blood. What they possessed resembled the blood of the present day lower creatures which is not yet red. Blood-like substance flowed in and out of them from above. In order to be able to harbour the red blood in themselves something else was necessary. We shall understand that when we know that until the casting out of the Moon in the evolution of our planet no part had been played by iron. Till then there was no iron on our planet, it received it when the planet Mars passed through our Earth, and so to say, left iron behind. Hence the influence of iron in the red blood is derived from Mars.
Legend has preserved this well by ascribing to Mars the qualities which iron brought to the blood—strong and warlike forces. Thus the influence which came in then with the change in the breathing process, was supported by the introduction of iron into our evolution. This was of the utmost importance in our terrestrial evolution. Under these influences the human organism was perfected to the point of beginning to purify and refine the bodies which it had earlier received on Saturn, Sun and Moon. It began to work first, of course, on the body which had been last received, the astral body, and this purification of the astral body constitutes our present civilisation.
If you could observe that human being, still in process of transforming the lungs and taking the first steps towards the development of red blood, you would find him very dissimilar to the present human form. He was so different that one really hesitates to describe man at that period, for it would appear grotesque to the present day materialistic thinker. He had more or less the development of an amphibian, a reptile, which was just beginning to breathe through lungs, and from the former floating, swimming motion was learning little by little to raise and support himself on the earth. When we say that man in the Lemurian Epoch had a mode of progression that alternated between a hop, scarcely to be called a step, and then a flight into the air, we have the nearest approach to some memory of it in the old Saurians. Nothing remains to be discovered by the geologist as solidification's or fossils, for the body was quite soft, it contained as yet no kind of bony structure.
And now how did the Earth appear, after having freed itself from the Moon?
... [continued]

1909-06-09-GA109

[Earth stage]
[CoL 1]
During the first period after pralaya, the earth, in which all the substances and beings were again united, recapitulated the Old Saturn condition.

At the beginning of this phase of evolution the earth was not a globe of gas as has often been falsely assumed, but a globe of warmth. For it (the earth) was re-capitulating the condition of the Old Saturn embodiment and extended to the sphere of the present Saturn. At a certain stage the spiritual beings involved take their substances with them. Spirit is the foundation of everything, both when the Sun separates and during the evolution of Old Moon. No external factor was responsible here; it was an inner necessity for one section of the beings. The higher beings separate what they need from the chaotic substance. Everywhere it is the spirit that directs the external reality. When the earth first came into existence everything was contained in it; the spiritual beings indwelling it were at different stages of their evolution. We shall bear this in mind during the following studies.

Thus after pralaya the earth first of all recapitulated the Old Saturn condition; it was a condition of warmth.
[CoL 3]
Then this gigantic globe of warmth condensed to the gaseous state and only when a definite point had been reached was it possible for the globe to form the fluid element and recapitulate the Old Moon condition. At this point on the earth there was a repetition of what had previously happened on Old Moon: the sun separated from the earth and earth-plus-moon became one independent body, containing the substances and beings of earth and moon, as they are still present today. Thus for a time earth and moon, and sun were one united whole. The earth-plus-moon was ejected because man could no longer keep pace with the tempo of the sun. Had the sun remained in the earth man would have been old practically at birth. The beings of the cosmos are at entirely different stages of evolution.
It will only be possible to indicate the most important features of this evolution during the fourth period, that of the earth. Even the more mature beings belonged to grades at every possible level. There were some who could neither profit by the rapid tempo of the sun nor by the slow tempo of the earth. These beings departed already before the separation, when sun, earth and moon were still united. They created special arenas for their activity and these were the domains suitable for their rulership. It was thus that the outer planets, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, were formed.
[other planets]

During the recapitulation of the Old Saturn embodiment, Uranus, Vulcan and Saturn separated from the earth.

During the recapitulation of the sun embodiment, Jupiter and Mars separated.

After the sun had left the Earth, Mercury and Venus separated from it.

[see: War in heaven]
The dispersal of Old Moon was brought about by the forces of the progressed beings who drew out the solar body, while the normal and retarded beings produced the moon circling around it. In all the mysteries these happenings were called the strife in heaven. The detached planetoids are the ruins of that battlefield. It is here that the primal secret of the origin of evil must be sought.
[Separation of Sun]
After the separation of the sun, the earth cast out the moon.
The planetary spirits involved could not have waited until the sun separated from the earth because they would not have found the right soil for their activity; evolution at this time was turning into different channels. The planetary conditions of space and movement are all the expression and effect of the activity of their beings; these conditions indicate the evolutionary rank of the spiritual beings inhabiting the planets. Beings who had believed that they, too, could accompany the sun because this had formerly been possible but who could not now do so, separated from the sun, but only after it had itself separated from the earth. These beings separated from the sun after this event and are at a far higher stage of evolution than men. Venus and Mercury are the two bodies that, having separated from the sun after the latter's separation from the earth, formed the inner planets of our solar system.
After the severance from the sun a difficult, sombre period now began for the earth, in a certain respect its darkest, hardest era. While still united with the moon, the earth drew into itself all the forces that were retarding evolution. To obstruct life is characteristic of the forces principally active in the moon. During this period, these obstructive forces were working far too strongly in the earth. If the earth had remained connected with them, life would not have taken its course in the right tempo. Man would have hardened to the stage of mummification. The earth would have become a veritable cemetery, one vast graveyard containing statues of mummified human bodies. No procreation would have been possible. When the sun had left the earth, fearful desolation and hardening of all life took place. So already at that time there were periods when the human physical body was abandoned by its spiritual members, just as today the physical body is abandoned by its spiritual members at death.
In that past era, withdrawal and emergence of the being of spirit and soul from the physical already took place and a new search for the physical body began, as happens today when incarnations are to take place. But more and more frequently it happened that when the being of soul and spirit desired, while the moon was still united with the earth, to find a human body again, none was to be found, because bodies were no longer fit to receive the being of spirit and soul.
Just imagine that great masses of human beings were to have died today and because of the character of the physical substance these bodies had become so decadent that the souls would have said: We cannot make use of these bodies, they are too decadent for us, they offer no possibility of further evolution.
Suppose that because of an extensive spread of alcoholism, for example, successive generations had gradually become so degenerate that the bodies were simply useless for the descending souls.
This is more or less a picture of the state of the earth at that time, before the exit of the moon. Everything that should have been habitable down below was often hardened, crusted, withered, mummified. There was actually a period when souls were seeking in vain for bodies for their own evolution on earth. The consequence was that certain beings simply could not at that time have returned to the physical plane as men. They could not have incarnated again on the earth.
These beings then went to other cosmic bodies that had separated from the sun, namely, to Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. There was a time when the majority of these beings who should normally have incarnated on the earth according to their nature and their stage of evolution, placed themselves under the protection of the beings of Mars, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn, having ascended to and populated these cosmic bodies. Only the strongest souls found it possible to cope with the stubborn bodies and keep them flexible. Please understand me well. It was only the best soul material that then came again to the earth, because its power to master the stubborn bodies was the greatest. But under such conditions evolution could not have progressed.
[separation of Moon]
The beings of the highest rank belonging to our solar system now adopted a new procedure. The most impermeable substances were extracted and separated from the earth; the severance of the moon was brought about. The result of this was that the forces that had remained behind were no longer frustrated in their evolution. But it was not until later that this moon became what it is today. The time had now come when the physical and etheric evolution of man could find the tempo befitting its stage. The forces both of the sun and the moon now worked upon the earth from outside, maintaining the balance.
Gradually, while the moon was emerging, a kind of softening, an amelioration of the bodies of men, again took place. The period just described is called in occultism the Lemurian epoch, the epoch of the separation of the moon during the physical embodiment of the earth.
The epoch when the sun left the earth is called the Hyperborean age, and the epoch when the sun, moon and earth were still united is called the Polarian age.
During the whole period when the sun was separated from the earth and the moon produced a hardening process on the earth to begin with and then left the earth during the whole of that period, sublime beings were influencing the differentiation. Their most important servants were the Spirits of Form, called the Exusiai in Christian esotericism, also Spirits of Revelation, Powers.

On Saturn it was the Thrones, the Spirits of Will who made the sacrifice of pouring out from their own substance the material for man's physical body.

On Old Sun it was the Dominions or Spirits of Wisdom who provided the substance for the etheric body, and

on Old Moon it was the Spirits of Movement who made possible the formation of the astral body.

On the earth the Spirits of Form or Powers instill the I, bringing it about that in this phase of evolution the ego enters gradually into what had come into existence, namely, man's physical body, etheric body and astral body. This is the work of the Spirits of Form.

In order that an I-man could come into existence at all as the expression of I consciousness, and that this coordination of the physical, etheric and astral bodies could take place, everything that has now been described was essential. The separation of sun and moon from the earth was necessary; it was also necessary for man to undergo a process of hardening followed by a certain softening. This could take place because the wise beings who guided and directed these happenings undertook it all as probationary measures for the good of evolution. A great deal in the evolutionary process of the earth is still done today by the sublime beings concerned, as probationary measures.

What, then, is the anthroposophical movement? It came into the world because the lofty beings we call the Masters, who live in human physical bodies but have reached the far higher stage of evolution than the average man of today, poured out a certain amount of wisdom from the last third of the nineteenth century onwards. The living influx of this wisdom from higher realms into our culture is the actual basis of our anthroposophical movement. Do not imagine that there was no possibility of the attempted influx of wisdom falling upon deaf ears in humanity. Even if there had been deaf ears, the Masters would have said that an attempt must be made later on, when human beings would be ready to receive the wisdom. In occultism this is known as the test of maturity in men. The fact that wisdom pours into humanity from higher beings such as these is not in itself sufficient; what matters is how it is received; the success of the test depends upon that. Such tests have already been made several times but have not always succeeded. It was often within narrow limits that humanity proved to be ripe for the tests; receptive souls and hearts were not always to be found. When the I of humanity was to be instilled, the test consisted in gradual attempts to permate what had formerly been astral body only, with the I. Then it turned out that the astral body, permeated by the I, was incapable of penetrating the physical body. Adjustment was therefore necessary and this was made possible by the separation of the moon. It was in the middle of the Lemurian epoch that the entry of the I, the Christ principle, was first achieved.

But the following was connected with this. During and after the separation of the moon, the earth was depopulated.
[see also: Advanced spiritual beings joining Earth development since last century in context of the future Reunion of Moon]
We have heard that the bodies had become so contaminated that they could no longer provide habitations for the souls. Cosmic happenings such as these have been preserved in legend and saga, but occult investigation reveals their true origin and teaches us that while the separation of the moon was taking place, when the earth was depopulated, many souls were searching for suitable embodiment in cosmic space; they departed from the earth and assumed bodies on other planets. But when the moon had finally left, it became apparent that the earth was capable again of providing suitable bodies.
Now, the souls, who during the latest Lemurian epoch and thereafter in the Atlantean period had gone to the planets, presented themselves again on the earth and incarnated in the bodies there. Groups of human beings now formed on the earth. Some provided bodies for souls coming from Jupiter incarnations, or from Mars, Venus or Saturn. These souls now found bodies that were appropriate for them. This grouping of souls gave rise to the birth of races. Hence there is a certain connection between the races and cosmic bodies and thus it was possible to speak of Saturn men, Jupiter men and so on. What can be called the concept of race had now, for the first time, its justification.
On Old Moon, and also on the earth while it was still united with the moon, there were human beings at different stages of evolution. This can be perceived right on into the Lemurian epoch, when owing to the exodus of the moon, differentiation took place in humanity. Thereafter the concept of race arose and from then on began to have a certain meaning, a certain significance. Race is something that comes into being and subsequently passes away again. The epoch of the formation of the races is that embraced by Lemuria and Atlantis. Today only stragglers of the races are present.

1973 - Ernst Hagemann

Source: original in DE: ' Weltenäther, Elementarwesen, Naturreiche, Texte aus der Geisteswissenschaft Rudolf Steiners, zusammengestellt und bearbeitet von Dr. Ernst Hagemann' (1973), translated as 'World ether, elemental beings, kingdoms of nature' (1993, republished 2008).

Extract adapted SWCC for readability and terminology consistent with the site.

[After Old Moon]
After the Earth's re-emergence from this great pralaya, the creator powers separated out the parts of the spiritual substance - which had become chaotic during the spiritual sleep – and which they needed for their own evolution and for the further evolution of the nature kingdoms. (2020)
[Earth rounds perspective – the first Conditions of Life]
The fourth metamorphosis of the Earth, or Earth evolution proper, began with the 148th Condition of Form. The evolution of the Earth proper goes through seven rounds; this would be the 22nd to the 28th round, each with seven Conditions of Form - thus 49 Conditions of Form, namely, the 148th to the 196th. (See chart - reference to Schema FMC00.196B)

The first Condition of Life (CoL) of the Earth stage of planetary evolution is the 22nd round or Condition of Life ‘overall’, which comprises the 148th to 154th Conditions of Form (CoF), a comprehensive repetition of the Old Saturn condition occurring at a higher level. (4) A gigantic earth-fire ball formed during the first "small cycle". (22nd round) (2) This Earth-fire ball was an "ensouled and spiritual organism." (4)

A comprehensive repetition of the Old Sun condition occurred (at a higher Level) in the following second "small cycle", or 23rd Condition of Life with its 155th to 161st Conditions of Form. Airy substance became incorpo-rated into the Earth's fire body. The warmth enkindled life in it and produced sound in the airy substance which surged around in space. (2)(4)

A comprehensive repetition of the Old Moon condition occurred at a higher level during the third "small cycle" or 24th Condition of Life with its 162nd to 168th Conditions of Form. The watery element was now added to the airy and warmth substances of the Earth.

After the 24th round, the Earth's organism dissolved again and went through a short sleep or small pralaya:"Here everything became an undifferentiated mass again (a chaos); and at the end of it began the fourth earth Condition of Life (CoL), in which we are living today." (2)(4) .

[Fourth and current mineral round or CoL – going round the CoF]
At the end of this small pralaya, the 25th round of the fourth Earth stage of planetary evolution began with the 169^th Condition of Form in the unformed (arupa) spirit world.
In it, humanity developed the first germ of the sentient soul. (4) Animals existed as the states of consciousness of archangeloi, plants as the states of consciousness of angels; and minerals as thoughts in the consciousness of Exusiai (SoF), and as thought germs in our human ancestors.(2, 214)
Everything became dissolved again during another short pralaya. (2) Then the Earth reemerged at the formed spirit world or rupa stage or 170th Condition of Form. During this globe or CoF, Man developed the first germ of the intellectual soul. (4) The animals became independent thought beings, the plants became independent astral beings, and minerals became independent etheric forms. (2)
After another short pralaya, the Earth continued to evolve at the astral level in its 171st Condition of Form, which in turn submerged into a small world sleep.
The following 172nd Condition of Form (CoF) is the one in which we are still living. lt began with the Polarian epoch.
To begin with, everything that had previously existed in the mineral, plant, animal, and human kingdoms, reemerged in a germinal state from the undifferentiated mass into which they had merged. (2)
This undifferentiated spirit mass reemerged as a gigantic etheric sphere which consisted of 'fine, living ether' and which was filled with small etheric spheres surrounded by astral human germs. The latter had drawn in everything which had been of an animal, plant, and mineral nature in previous Earth conditions. (2) A fine etheric body condensed out of its astral precursor. It was a conglomerate consisting of a basic mineral, etheric mass and etheric plants, animals and human beings; it was permeated by the three elementary kingdoms. (2, 216)

Discussion

Note 1 - Separation of the planets

FMC00.298 presents

CoL1 - Uranus, Vulcan, Saturn
CoL2 - Jupiter, Mars
CoL4 - Mercury, Venus (and Sun and Moon)

.

Notes:

1903-GA089 - Draft of a spiritual-scientific cosmology - Fragment from 1903/04

At the end of this document the "withdrawal of Mars" is discussed as an influence in the CoL4 stage as part of the changes corresponding in the Lemurian epoch -

Working hypothesis: this probably does not refer to the separation of Mars but instead to the withdrawal of the astral influence as depicted Schema FMC00.219 above - see also the astral Mars influence on Schema FMC00.451. To be clarified still with the original version of the text (still to be added on the site).

also:

Mercury influence in the second half of Earth evolution, related to Buddhi and Christ Impulse, the spiritualization of Mankind